Let’s talk about spoilers.
College Humor put out this video on spoiler etiquette (featuring Andre Royo from “The Wire,” Sarah Wayne Callies from “The Walking Dead,” and Julie Benz from “Dexter,” among others), and while it’s mostly played for laughs, it does raise a few really good points. Most notably, it sets guidelines for how long you have to wait before you can discuss spoilers with impunity: two weeks for a regular episode, two months for a season finale, and one year for a series finale. Those are a little on the long end for my taste, but I’d be willing to accept the terms just to provide some clarity. I get that some people like to wait until the end of a season to plow through a show on DVD, but there has to be a limit, people.
The one that hit closest to home for me, because I write for a television blog, was this one: “Viewers shall seek out information online at their own risk. While a spoiler alert is considerate, it should by no means be expected.” I swear to God I’ve had it up to my bloodshot eyes with people who open their browser, go to a website that discusses timely television news, then get all huffy when that website actually discusses things that happened on television. We try to be pretty good about it here in our discussion posts about “Justified” or “The Walking Dead,” but only because those are next day things, and it’s understandable that you had something come up the night before. But make no mistake, that is us being considerate, not something you are owed.
In summation, Omar gets shot in the head at the end of “The Wire.” It happened four years ago. If it was that important to you, you would have watched it by now.
via Buzzfeed
